I think they like it...

My co-conspirator, fosnevy wrote the following email to the SCA Heralds' list.

Greetings, all,

...in the middle of a project, and we want to see how much interestthere is before any money is spent. I am not speaking as Wreath, thisme being a guy who does SCA heraldry and knows computers, among otherco-conspirators.

Cormac Mor came up with the idea of a USB memory stick that boots onany ("Windows") computer and has a usable copy of the O&A locally,with no network access required. It may also work with newer,intel-core Macs, though that is entirely untested. He mentioned it tome and we ran with it.

We would like to know is how many people would be interested, and howmany copies we should plan on producing if there is interest. Theywill be available at cost - nobody will be making a profit.

The system currently includes:

1. The online O&A - the same one you find at http://oanda.sca.org2. http://heraldry.sca.org3. The Pennsic Traceable Art project.4. An update script which will make fresh copies of the above sitesand do everything necessary to update the local functionality so thatno

All of these work locally, no network access required. This isintended for use at consult tables, major wars, and other remotelocations where network access is either unavailable, expensive, orslow. We're hoping to include the MNA/MHA collection, and the Academyof Saint Gabriel letters, if the Academy and the authors give theirpermission. If anyone has suggestions/offers of other things toinclude, please feel free to contact Cormac or me directly.

At this point, it's not done - permissions need to be secured, we'restill finalizing details, etc - but it works just fine.

- Istvan

The response has been phenomenal. I think we found an idea whose time had come. We'll never completely replace the old paper O&A, of course (there will always be consultation tables in places with no power), but I think we'll see fewer and fewer of them as time goes by.

My new task is to come up with a suitably-themed desktop background. *fires up Photoshop*